Religion & Beliefs

The United States officially separates church and state, something for which everyone, from Jewish storeowners opening shop on Sunday to kids not saying other religions’ prayers in school, is grateful.  But a recent court case in Nashville, TN makes me … Read More

Okay… I don't mean to go on too long about Herod, but after my post the other day I got a weird email from my friend John, who also happens to be a religion writer and the editor of SoMA … Read More

One of my major pet peeves is people who whine about davening going on too long. While I have no patience for sermons or divrei Torah that go longer than seven minutes, a long service on Shabbat morning doesn’t bother … Read More

On Speaking of Faith last night… a really interesting interview with author Jennifer Michael Hecht, about her new book, Doubt: A History. Poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht says that as a scholar she always noticed the "shadow history" of … Read More

If I ever wanted to write a soap opera, or a damning book about the underbelly of the Jewish world, all I’d have to do is spend a year or two working as a secretary at a Jewish day school … Read More

Over at Haaretz, a story about how an increasing number of Religious Zionist Rabbis are encouraging people to visit the Temple Mount.  Currently, rabbinic consensus in the religious Zionist and the ultra-Orthodox world prohibits Jews from entering the Temple Mount. … Read More

According to the HuffPo, an Israeli archaeologist has found the tomb of King Herod.    King Herod?    King Herod: the Jewish proxy ruler of the Holy Land under imperial Roman occupation from 37 B.C. His most famous construction project was … Read More

I went to mincha on Shabbat afternoon, and during seudah shlishit (the mini dinner they serve between mincha and maariv) conversation somehow turned to gun control. Where I come from, there’s a pretty uniform sentiment that guns are bad news, … Read More